Bobby Johnson 25th Anniversary Memorial

In honor of National Work Zone Awareness week, the Aberdeen Maintenance Office took time to recognize the 25th Anniversary of the passing of Bobby Johnson. Bobby's family along with retired co-workers and current Maintenace staff gathered to remember Bobby and the 55 other WSDOT employees who have been killed in the line of duty since 1950.

Regional Administrator, Kevin Dayton, spoke and shared the story of how Bobby was killed in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14 removing debris from a mudslide. Bobby wasn't feeling well, but went out when he got the call about the slide anyhow. He had heard there might be cars buried under the mud so he rushed out, risking his own life in order to save others.

Unfortunately, the lighting was poor, and the slope unstable and Bobby ended up being buried by mud. Dayton noted, "It is a reminder to all of us that in the work we do, at any given time, things can change."

In 2005, the loop road at the Aberdeen Maintenance Facility and US 12 was named "Bobby Johnson Lane" in honor of Johnson and to serve as a reminder to all WSDOT employees of the dangers that exist in their everyday work building and maintaining our roads. After a moment of silence, attendees including Bobby's widow, Zona, three of their four children and two of their fourteen great-grandchildren, walked down to the street sign to lay flowers in his honor.